Zapco AG Reference-series - Manual (Page 8)

7
• Power Supplies
Regulated or Unregulated? For years amplifier designers have
debated which type of power supply is best. What’s the truth about power
supplies? They each have advantages and disadvantages and there is no,
one, best type. Limiting yourself to one type of power supply limits your
amplifier design flexibility. ZAPCO uses both types of power supplies
depending on the intended use of each amplifier, as well as expected
current demands and operating environment.
SymbiLink
™
Balanced System
The most natural configuration for an audio system in the
automobile places the signal source in the dash with the amplifiers located
some distance away, usually under the seat or in the trunk of the vehicle.
The reality of this arrangement dictates the necessity to make long runs of
low level signal cable usually from the front to the back of the car. The
electrical environment in an automobile is one that is inherently noisy and
filled with conditions that threaten to degrade signal fidelity at every turn.
Capacitive loading due to the long cable lengths, the potential for ground
loops, alternator charging currents or currents generated by the amplifiers
themselves are all factors that induce noise and distortion into the signal
cables. By no means is this an ideal situation. Thankfully, ZAPCO has found
the solution.
SymbiLink™ components convert a standard unbalanced audio
signal into the fully balanced domain usually reserved for expensive
professional audio equipment found in recording studios or at your local
concert venue. After this conversion is made, the audio cabling becomes
virtually immune to electrical interference in the surrounding environment
and is much less susceptible to signal degradation over long cable runs. It is
for this reason that balanced signal cables are common in professional or
industrial applications. ZAPCO has made this technology available for your
car. ZAPCO engineers also discovered that the pulsating D.C. current in the
automobile chassis and amplifier power wiring caused a significant amount
of low frequency distortion. ZAPCO's balanced SymbiLink™ technology
completely eliminates this distortion.